


Love's Consequence

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Choices, Difficult Decisions, F/M, Forbidden Love, Loyalty, M/M, Princes & Princesses, Sibling Incest, Unrequited Love, pseudo-historical fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:19:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4697162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if you love someone so much that you can't live without them? What if someone loves <i>you</i> so much that they are willing to die for you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love's Consequence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moon_Blitz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/gifts).



“Your Highness? Your Highness, we’re ready.” 

Raighen looked up from the book he had been staring at for the past half-hour and gave his chamberlain a faint smile “Thank you, Caiden.” 

Caiden shifted nervously. “Are you certain this is a good idea? With the delegation here… Would it not be wiser to wait?”

Raighen stood and walked over to the door. He put both hands on Caiden’s shoulders and said earnestly, “If I wait, I might not get another chance. If all goes according to Father’s plan, Ria will be married by the end of this moon. I cannot wait.” He bit hard into his lower lip, seeing that Caiden was not convinced. “I understand if you don’t want to help us—“

“No!” Caiden took a deep breath, taking in the mildly shocked expression on Raighen’s face, and said more calmly, “I’m sorry, Your Highness. What I mean is—I mean…” He floundered, suddenly unable to meet Raighen’s eyes. “I would do anything you ask. No matter how dangerous.”

“Because I’m your Prince?”

“Because you’re my friend.” 

They stood in strangled silence for another moment. Finally, Raighen said, “We should go.”

***

Raighen found Ria in her nightgown, curled up on the loveseat by the window. Behind her, there was only the blackness of the night. Her dark hair melted against the sky, putting her pale skin in direct contrast. The candlelight gave her an eerie glow. Unlike her brother, she had actually been reading while she waited. 

“Are we alone, sister?” Raighen asked, once the lock on the door scraped closed. 

“I dismissed my ladies almost an hour ago. I thought there was a mistake and you weren’t coming after all.” She put the book aside and slid out of the loveseat. Ria moved like water or light silk, all her movements graceful and pliable. She approached her brother slowly, her hands going to the lacing of her nightgown. 

“Of course I came.” Raighen pulled her toward him, lacing his fingers through her soft hair. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then her temples. She was so familiar to him that he could imagine how every curve of her body felt before he even touched it. 

“It’s not safe with the delegation here,” she murmured, running her fingers lightly over his chest. 

“It’s alright. Caiden is looking out for us.” He felt her tense. “What?”

“I don’t know if telling him about us was such a good idea.” She withdrew just far enough to be able to look into his face. “I know you trust him—“

“You should trust him too. He has nothing but our best interests at heart. Ria. We grew up together.”

“Was he upset when you told him?”

Raighen balked at the question. “Of course he was upset. This is _incest_ we’re talking about, Ria.” Without realizing it, his voice had fallen to a hiss. 

“But he loves you enough to not only keep it a secret but enable you.” Poisonous, sarcastic notes seeped into her tone. 

“Yes! You…you don’t believe that. Why?”

“Oh I do.” She untangled herself from him and stalked over to the bed. She got under the thick blanket and watched him from under her long lashes. “You do know he is madly in love with you, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Raighen said. He crossed the room in three determined steps, kicked off his shoes and lay down on top of the blanket beside her. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“Of your chamberlain?” She scoffed. “I simply feel sorry for him.”

“Ria—“ He reached out and cupped her face with one hand. “There is no one in this world I love more than you. Do you understand?”

She closed her eyes and smiled almost wistfully. “You wouldn’t elope with me.”

“I would if I thought there was a single place in the world that would accept us as we are,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss the soft skin at the base of her ear. 

“Oh there has to be somewhere,” Ria said in the same dreamy voice. “Besides, no one has to know we’re brother and sister.”

“We’re twins, Ria. The resemblance is hard to miss.”

She let out a soft, frustrated sound. “Fine. Well at least get in here before I lose all patience with you.”

Obeying, Raighen disposed of the rest of his clothes and slid under the covers. Slowly, he opened her dressing gown and cupped her breasts, first one then the other. They were soft and warm against his hand, pliable, just like every other part of her. He slid his hand down her body until he reached the soft, lush hair between her legs. Soon, he was inside her, lovingly drawing out helpless, ragged moans from his beautiful sister. 

Ria kept her eyes closed as she arched against his hand. “I want to be one with you, brother,” she breathed, as though in a delirium. 

Raighen released her, then positioned himself above her and looked into her face. “Look at me, Ria. I can’t bear the thought that you may be seeing your intended while we are one.”

“You’re such a little fool,” she laughed, but opened her eyes nonetheless. 

Their bodies melted together, becoming one inseparable whole. Prince Cornelius might take Ria away to be his consort, but she would always belong to Raighen. In body, in soul and in mind. She had given herself to him freely and willing. The world thought it a terrible crime, one punishable by death, to love one’s sibling as one would a lover, but Raighen saw the folly in that. He would never accept it as Truth. 

***  


The last day of the delegation’s stay fell on the Fire Fertility Festival. Fires were lit in the spacious interior courtyards of the palace. Courtiers, diplomats and other dignitaries gathered to feast and drink and dance as the fires burned and flared, throwing long shadows onto the stone walls and filling the night air with sparks and smoke. 

After dancing two rounds with Ria, Prince Cornelius chose to take a pint with his future father-in-law. They were soon joined by some men from the delegation and the King’s top ministers. Their talk swiftly turned to politics – “this alliance, my boy!” the King exclaimed, “is the future of our nations!” – and Ria was soon forgotten. 

Raighen, seeing his chance, detached himself from the group of young courtiers he had been speaking to and took Ria by the arm. “Come dance with me, sister.” He took her to one of the fires and placed his hands firmly on her waist. He could smell the lavender in her hair – it mixed with the bitter smoke and made Raighen’s head spin. 

Ria was lithe in his arms as they danced. In the uproar of the feast, no one seemed to notice them. Raighen’s eyes stung when he thought of Ria leaving the next day, sailing across the Western Sea, starting a new life in a new land. All of this with a lord husband and without him. 

He pretended his eyes stung from the smoke. 

“Do you think my fiancé would notice if I…slipped away for a moment?” Ria asked quietly, using the close frame of one of the dance’s figures to whisper in Raighen’s ear. 

Raighen tensed. He squinted through the smoke, searching out Prince Cornelius. The Prince was still drinking with their father. They were both flushed with ale, laughing, slapping each other on the back in the most familial manner. Raighen thought, not without some spite, that perhaps their father ought to marry Prince Cornelius himself and leave Ria be. 

He longed to lose himself in Ria one last time. 

“Come.” He clasped Ria’s hand tightly and led her through the crowd of revelers. On the way out, he found Caiden and signaled for him to come with them. 

Ria giggled like a girl yet to flower as the three of them ran through the empty halls. The skirt of her silk cream dress billowed around her, almost catching Raighen in its folds from time to time. When they were in the last hallway, Raighen picked his sister up into his arms and carried her, as though she were his bride, the rest of the way to her room.

“Try to not fall asleep! I’ll repay you, I promise!” Raighen called to Caiden over Ria’s shoulder as they disappeared into her bedchamber and shut out the outside world. 

*

Not falling asleep was hard after all that wine, Caiden found. If he had known that Raighen would risk disappearing from the feast, he would not have drunk so much. But he forced himself to stay awake just in case someone came along intent on seeing the Princess. After tonight, Ria would be far away and Caiden could not bring himself to deny Raighen this last night of happiness. 

“What are you doing lurking in these parts?”

Caiden jumped. “L-lady Hestia.” She had snuck up on him, quiet as a bird of prey. “Are you looking for the Princess? I believe she is still at the feast.”

Lady Hestia smiled sharply at him. “I was actually looking for you.”

“F-for me?” Caiden stuttered. “Why?”

“I was watching you at the feast. Blondes look so fine in the firelight.” Her hands landed on his chest and, suddenly, he could feel her breasts even through the fabric of his shirt and frock. 

“You must be mistaken. Lady Hestia, I…” He trailed off as she kissed him. 

“What better things do you have to do? It is the Fertility Festival after all.” Lady Hestia whispered in a deep, sultry voice. She began to gently push him back and to the side, guiding him into a narrow side corridor and then into a shadowy alcove. “Unless the Princess is your mistress.” 

She was joking but Caiden quickly shook his head in terror that anyone would even suggest such a thing. Given Princess Ria’s engagement it would be considered nothing short of treason… 

Lady Hestia laughed and kissed him again. Her body was so warm and the wine guided Caiden’s every instinct. It wasn’t every night that an, objectively, beautiful woman of good breading offered herself up so easily. So Caiden unlaced her corset and allowed her to deprive him of his frock and undo the lacing on his shirt. 

He was about to lose himself in her, when the voices caught his attention. 

They were loud and coming rapidly closer, probably half-way up the nearest staircase. One of them was certainly Prince Cornelius. Caiden froze. Lady Hestia whimpered in an attempt to regain his attention. 

“I am telling you, my friend,” Cornelius was saying loudly, drunkenly. “This is the day of Fertility and Love! Princess Ria and I will be married in a few days time so what does it matter?”

“But her father…” his companion objected uncertainly.

“Oh His Majesty won’t mind! Spent half the night talking about wanting grandchildren.”

“And the key?”

“Oh I did have to bribe the King’s Keymaster for it. Good thing he was drunk. They do say that it is possible to conceive triplets on the day of Fertility!”

Caiden’s stupor broke as he realized just what was about to happen. He pushed Lady Hestia away and ran for Princess Ria’s bedchamber. Prince Cornelius and his companion were only a short hallway behind him and the door to the Princess’ room was at a dead end. There was no time to knock in the code he and Raighen had agreed on, so he simply knocked with as much urgency and as forcefully as he dared. “Raighen, it’s me. Quickly, there’s trouble.”

Raighen and Ria had apparently not fallen asleep yet because a moment later the door opened and Raighen pulled him into the room just as Cornelius and his companion rounded the corner. 

“What is it?” Raighen asked in a half-whisper. “Who’s coming?”

Ria was quickly trying to find a robe to slip into, the blanket she had wrapped around herself dragging on the floor and catching on her feet and various furniture. 

“Prince Cornelius and someone else. I didn’t notice until…” he swallowed and looked away guiltily. 

“What _were_ you doing?” Raighen asked suddenly, noticing the disarray Caiden’s clothes were in. 

“No time, you need to hide.”

“What? No, Ria will just say—“

There was a sharp knock on the door. 

“You don’t understand, he has a key,” Caiden hissed. “The Keymaster gave it to him.”

“What—!”

“Shh! Hide. Now.” They frantically looked for a place to hide. The curtains on the windows were not long enough to hide behind and the bed was too low set to hide under. 

“My love! It is your fiancé! You aren’t asleep so early on such a night are you?” Prince Cornelius’ words were just slightly slurred. 

“Forgive me, Your Highness,” Ria said loudly, trying to keep the frightened shakiness out of her voice. “I am unwell.”

“Then let me come and comfort you.”

“No need, Your Highness. I simply need to sleep.”

“I thought I heard voices in your room. Is someone with you?” There was a sudden, suspicious note in Prince Cornelius’ voice. 

Not coming up with a good place to hide other than the small, decorative wardrobe, Raighen began to look for his clothes, which somehow had managed to get scattered all across the room. Seeing that Raighen would never finish dressing in time – not with all the lacing that would need to be done – if Cornelius, in his drunken state lost his patience, Caiden waived at the writing desk, which stood next to the wardrobe. They could use it to try and barricade the door. Then, perhaps, they could attempt to move the wardrobe as well. It would at least give them some time for a plan if it did not make the drunk Prince go away. 

“No one is in here, Your Highness, just me!” Ria called in the sweetest, most obliging tone she could. 

Apparently, Cornelius misinterpreted it. The lock scraped open. 

Frantically, Caiden pushed Raighen into the wardrobe and shut the door just as Cornelius and his companion came barging into the room. 

Ria cried out. 

For a long moment, there was silence as Prince Cornelius took in the sight before him: 

His bride, in nothing but a loosely fastened robe, with her hair undone and her feet bare, sat on the edge of a rumpled bed with half the covers thrown off and the bedclothes visibly disturbed. On the other side of the room stood a man whom Cornelius had only seen briefly at court – flushed, disheveled, with the lacing on his undershirt and britches mostly undone. “What in the name of Heaven is going on here?”

“What is going on here, Your Highness,” Ria said, in the coldest tone she could manage even as she went deathly pale, “is that you have broken into my room without my permission. I can assure you my father will hear—“

“Of what?” Prince Cornelius’ eyes had suddenly gone cold. “Of your lover?”

“He is not my lover,” Ria said, standing up. 

“Then who is he?”

“I am chamberlain to High Highness Prince Raighen,” Caiden said.

“And what might you be doing in the Princess’ room? In this…state.”

“I-I can explain. It’s a misunderstanding.” 

“Oh? Do go on.” Every word dripped poison. There was simply no way to explain a half-dressed man being in a locked room with a half-dressed woman in the middle of the night. Even for family members it would have been suspicious and highly inappropriate. Even for friends of the same gender. It was simply too _improper_ to explain away. Caiden should not have even been on this side of the palace. If he had been caught here alone, he could have woven some tale about a love affair with one of Princess’ ladies… 

Prince Cornelius’ companion was suspiciously studying everything in the room. Caiden realized it would only be a matter of time until someone noticed that the frock lying on the floor by the bed was the same one Raighen had worn to the feast, even if the Princes’ insignia on the cuff of the left sleeve escaped them. There was no other way.

Caiden went to one knee. 

“Your Highness, only I am to blame here. Princess Ria is not at fault. I…have lusted after her for years and I thought she might return my affection. So I tricked her into letting me into her room. She had retired for the night but I…well I tricked her to let me in. And I began to press the issue with her, but she would not have me and, well, it was all the wine. I had too much wine and…” Caiden could feel his head begin to spin, a feeling of unreality settling in. “When you came she did not call for help because she was afraid you would judge her and…and Her Highness is so kind that she wished to protect me. I suppose she meant to reason with me still.” 

Caiden glanced up. Ria was looking at him with wide, bewildered eyes. He supposed she might attempt to thank him later for saving her reputation, the country’s alliance, the family’s honor…

But he wasn’t doing this for her or the damn country. He was doing it for Raighen. 

***

The morning after the Festival was rainy and misty. The people rejoiced that the Festival had been successful in opening up the skies and calling forward the nourishing rain. 

There was no joy to be found in Prince Raighen’s apartments. 

“I’m going to turn myself in,” Raighen said. He stared blankly out the window, hardly registering Ria’s painfully familiar presence behind him. 

“You cannot do that,” Ria said. “Think what it would mean.”

Raighen pressed his forehead against the cold glass. “Caiden is facing treason charges because of me. Because I asked him to do something I should have never asked of anyone. He was trying to protect us…”

Ria walked up behind him. She slipped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder. “I know you care about him, Raighen. But he knew what he was doing.”

“That doesn’t mean we ought to let him!” Raighen hit the glass, palm open, almost like a drowning seaman caught below deck as his ship went under. 

“And what do you think will happen if you do this, Raighen? My reputation will be ruined, the alliance Father worked for for years will be shattered, the people will never see you fit to rule. That is at best. By the laws of the land, even those of royal blood are not exempt from punishment for incest. That is at worst.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that. I’ve thought all night about it, Ria. I will wait until you and Prince Cornelius with his delegation have sailed away. Then I will tell father in private. He will not say anything publicly because he will not want to ruin the alliance. Father is of strict views, but he is not unjust. He will not let Caiden lose his head for something he did not do.”

“He may very well still. For covering for you. Besides, it would not be so easy to let Caiden go. People know what he is charged with already. People will talk – Father will need to give a reason for his release. My _honorable_ fiancé has been telling his men and anyone who will listen that Caiden tried to rape me. To make sure his wife’s reputation is not stained in any way, naturally.” She had the grace to sound disgusted. 

Raighen sighed and looked up at the grey sky. Guilt and bitterness tore at him. Breathing was nearly impossible. “Then I will take the blame on myself. I will say that I had come to you with incestuous, dishonorable intentions. Caiden was under orders, you would have never accepted me—“

“No!”

“I have to do something, Ria!” Raighen snapped. He turned sharply, forcing her to let go of him and take a step back. Ria stared at him. She was shaking. 

“If you go public with that… Father may not have a choice—“ She broke off, overwhelmed, and began to cry, tears flowing freely down her face. “And if you’re dead, Raighen, I might as well be dead too.”

He could not bear the sight of her tears, so he pulled her into his arms and rocked her gently as though she were a child. “Disown me, maybe. But Father would never execute his own child.”

“You don’t know that,” she sobbed, burying her face into his shoulder. 

“I love you, sister. Everything will be well, I promise.” He cupped her face in his hands and gently wiped away her tears. 

“Promise you won’t say anything to Father. Promise me, Raighen.” 

He kissed her forehead. “Everything will be alright,” was all Raighen could say. 

***

“Caiden!” Raighen broke into a run as soon as he was cleared by the guards. 

Caiden pulled himself to his feet, using the bars on the door to his cell for support. The royal interrogators did not waste time on pleasantries. “Your Highness. It was…kind of you to come.”

Raighen stopped just inches away from the cell door. He held out a small package and a blanket. “Here. I brought you some food. It’s not much but better than what they’ll give you. And the blanket. Take it. It’s damp and bloody cold down here.” 

Caiden pulled the blanket and package through the bars and smiled vaguely. “Thank you.”

“Are you…how are you?”

Caiden shrugged. “As well as could be expected. Are you and Princess Ria alright?”

“What? We—Caiden, we’re fine. We’re not the ones…” Raighen looked over his shoulder at the guards. They were not paying them much mind and were some couple dozen of meters away. Raighen lowered his voice to a half-whisper. “I can’t believe you did this. You shouldn’t have.”

“Well I did. I don’t regret it, Your Highness.” 

“You could lose your life for this. For something I put you up to…” 

“Men die in battle for their Prince all the time.” Caiden’s expression was almost wistful. Also – pained and yet somehow relieved at the same time. 

Raighen nearly growled in confusion and frustration. “That’s different. This isn’t battle.” 

“I’ve protected my country’s interests and my Princess. I’ve protected my Prince and best friend. That’s an alright thing to die for, don’t you think?” 

Raighen stared at him. He had expected Caiden to have regretted everything or to at least be angry at him for putting him in this situation. But he seemed almost resigned. “We were the ones who were wrong to give in to such sinful desires. I should have never dragged you into it. I'm so sorry...”

“I know you love her, Raighen. And I know what will happen If you turn yourself in.” Caiden smiled sadly, almost knowingly at the shocked expression on Raighen’s face. “And I’m willing to die for your freedom and your happiness.”

“Why?” Raighen could feel everything insides him contract painfully. “Because I’m your Prince?”

“Because I love you.” The words were so soft that for a moment Raighen thought he’d imagined them. 

He swallowed hard. “That’s no reason for you to die for my sins.” He looked down at his feet, ashamed at his own indecisiveness, his own blindness. Oh how Ria had been right. He began to speak, to promise that he would find a way to get them all out of this mess…

He was cut off by the guards telling him his time was up. 

“Farewell, Your Highness.” Caiden wrapped the blanket Raighen had brought around his shoulders and slid back down against the wall. 

Raighen left without a word. The smoke from the wall torches stung his eyes. Or so he told himself. 

***

Raighen stood outside the door to the Privy Council chamber, waiting for his father to finish speaking with his ministers. He had watched Ria sale away that afternoon. They had hid their tears and said their goodbyes with as much reserve as they could muster. 

The thought of never seeing her again bleached the world of all color and Raighen thought that it was silly to cling to something as pointless as life without his sister. That was how he had ended up here. 

But he still had his doubts. He couldn’t stop thinking about Ria’s tear-stained face and how she had begged him to not put himself in jeopardy. Perhaps not all was lost after all. He could travel to see her for the Mayday Festival and she could, perhaps, come for his naming day celebration. They would hardly see each other more than two-three times a year but those moments could surely be sweet enough to live for. 

It would be just that simple if it weren’t for Caiden. 

_I love you,_ Caiden had said. _I love you._ And Raighen had felt his heart shrivel up. 

Guilt and despair. This was all, all his fault. Could he truly live with himself if he did nothing? He would never love anyone the way he loved Ria. He did not want to cause her pain, or die, or destroy his own life. He also did not wish to lose his best friend and to be responsible for the death of someone who had so clearly been willing to do anything for him and whose feelings he had exploited for his own happiness. Unknowingly. And yet. 

“Raighen? Was there something you wanted to speak to me about, son?”

Raighen looked up at his father, towering in the doorway to the council chamber. Stern faced and imposing but with pride and love in his eyes. He could still say, _nothing,_ or make up some banal excuse. But if he was going to confess, he had to do it now before all his nerve left him. 

Ria’s beautiful, tear-streaked face shimmered before his eyes like a ghost. 

_I love you,_ Caiden had said. 

Raighen would remember this moment for the rest of his life.


End file.
